The failing, not the succeeding

Last time I shared out the fun we had spinning a wheel. Now we (in a small PBL group that meets twice weekly) are spinning our wheels trying to make a counter/sensor that will tally the spins of a particularly sick skateboard wheel.

I really enjoy this tailored inquiry work using the stuff around us – both the stuff in our lives and the stuff in our classroom. Given that this is a small project with a mix of analog and digital resources, I’m curious about what the Coöp community thinks of such work, but I’m also curious about what educators in general make of it. Are we shaking our heads? Cross-walking this to standards? To Marzano? Where are we (big We and little we) right now as pedagogues?

What is the purpose of technology in schools? In education? In public education and its administration? What is the role of inquiry? When do you think inquiry is okay or permissible? For whom? What about design, engineering, and math with skateboard wheels?

Is this “good” teaching and learning despite “bad” policy? “Bad” teaching and learning despite “good” policy? Neither? Both? Maybe? Good for some? I know there’s not a lot of sample to code or analyze here, but I’m curious, as ever, about our beliefs and our belief in them.

What’s the difference between what we accept or profess as believable and what we actually believe? Between what we wish and what we enact? In those spaces, how do we move?

I think growth and learning are in those spaces. I wonder, as ever, if I am there, too – if I am doing enough to enact what I wish for my kids, profession, and school. What am I making?

Spin a skateboard wheel; see where it stops. Does it say that we’re failing or succeeding?

There are lots of bits of learning buzzing around us – how can we complete a circuit with a moving part? What works? What is the best way? To whom can we go to for help? What’s been done before? What can we calculate from this? What can we estimate? How can we get more accurate and precise? How much perseverance can problem-solving take? What important learning can we uncover in school by approaching it through our own stuff?

I think most starkly we are becoming confident that we can move towards finding answers by finding out what isn’t the answer, which is a process and an approach and a set of habits rather than a memorized or rote selection.

A fascinating set of questions, and a terrific project. Completing a circuit (closing a circuit), if done mechanically, involves friction — is a lesson to be learned on this issue? Optical measurement? I’ll bet you could get the entire school involved, even the music department (if you have one) because the nature of harmonics that vibrations give off may evidence a physical design problems. Economics — when does one reach the point of diminishing returns in connection with R&D? Terrific stuff — the universe from a truck!